Higher education has expanded rapidly since 1980, from 50m enrollments then to almost 200m enrollments today. Across the globe, almost one in three school leavers now enter higher education. The presentation considers patterns and developments in female participation and attainment in higher education, exploring the difference by country and academic discipline. It reveals a range of issues that any future agenda for women’s higher education needs to consider.

1. The “Big Picture”: women in the changing
global higher education landscape
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Professor Nigel Healey
nigel.healey@fnu.ac.fj
15 February 2017

2. Advertisement in the airport named
after first female prime minister of a
major democracy, elected 51 years ago
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3. Overview
§ The scale and growth of higher education
§ The importance of access to higher education
§ Percentage of female tertiary graduates
§ Overall
§ By level of study
§ By discipline
§ Female earnings by level of study
§ Conclusions
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Main source:

4. Gross tertiary enrolment ratio (Source:
UNESCO)
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0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Australia China Japan Finland New Zealand Korea India UK USA

5. Gross tertiary enrolment ratio (Source:
UNESCO)
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6. The importance of access to higher
education
— Higher lifetime earnings
— Lower risk of unemployment
— Better health status
— Increased life expectancy
— Greater engagement with civil society
— Reduced propensity to engage in criminal
activity
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7. Percentage of female tertiary
graduates (2014)
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8. Percentage of female tertiary
graduates by level (2014)
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9. Ratio of female to male tertiary
graduates by discipline (2014) – (1)
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10. Ratio of female to male tertiary
graduates by discipline (2014) – (2)
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11. Higher education and equal pay
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12. Female earnings as % of male
earnings by level of education (2014)
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60
65
70
75
80
85
90
Below upper secondary education Tertiary education

13. Conclusions
— Higher education is growing rapidly – global
gross enrolment is close to 1 in 3
— Higher education is a gateway to a career in the
global knowledge economy
— Good news: female participation rates in most
country are above male rates
— Bad news: female participation lags in science
and engineering …and higher education is not
associated with greater pay equality
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14. For more information
— E-mail: nigel.healey@fnu.ac.fj
— Website: http://fnu.academia.edu/NigelHealey
— Website includes conference presentations,
papers and resources on the internationalisation
of higher education
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